One of the lesser-known stories about the Holocaust is the role played by Israel's “youth villages” (kfar no'ar, in singular), the holistic dormitory schools that became a place of refuge for children who were able to get out of Europe – legally or otherwise.
Originally a “home away from home” for children whose families sent them to take part in a new Zionistic educational concept in the late 1930's, the villages became the only home for many children whose families were destroyed by the Nazis, and their fellow students and teaching staff became their new families.
One of the young refugees who left Germany was Avraham Bar-Ezer, a graduate of the Kfar Hassidim Religious Youth Village (Kfar Hanoar Hadati, Kfar Hassidim in Hebrew) in the Zevulun Valley in northern Israel. The school, like many other youth villages, was established to educate young German and European Jews whose parents were either unwilling or unable to leave their home countries.
Observant Jews in Germany were already Zionistically-oriented, so the idea of sending their children to the Land of Israel (then Mandatory Palestine) and learn agriculture while living in an independence and value oriented environment became accepted as a sort of positive insurance policy to keep the next generation safe.
As Hitler coalesced his power base throughout the 1930s, more and more families began to be convinced that Nazi control of Germany – and eventually, much of the rest of Europe – was not a passing phenomenon. But as more people expressed interest in leaving Germany, countries in Western Europe and North America toughened their immigration requirements. Britain, too, had a strict cap on the number of German immigrants (i.e., Jews) who would be allowed into Palestine, and by the time many German families decided they had no future in the land of their birth, it was too late.
Among the requirements Britain set for immigrants to qualify for an immigration certificate was ownership of a minimum of 1,000 pounds sterling – an almost impossible tenet to fulfill by the late 1930s, as the Germans had already seized most of the Jews' assets – or the possession of a “necessary profession” that would contribute to the development of Mandatory Palestine.
On that basis, organizations in Germany established agricultural schools for German Jewish youth, and allied themselves with youth villages in Palestine, which were beginning to be established for educational purposes during the period.
Kfar Hassidim's youth village was established in 1937, and shortly afterwards, Bar-Ezer and some three dozen other youths arrived, after having received immigrant certificates enabling them to leave Germany.
“It was difficult to leave home, but I was very excited to go to Israel,” Bar-Ezer told Arutz-7 in an interview. He had lost his father some years before and was very close to his mother, but still, at the tender age of 10 he set out to start a new life in the Land of Israel.
Bar-Ezer studied the usual math and languages, and received training in agricultural arts (Bar-Ezer today grows chickens in the village of Kfar Hassidim, along with his son and grandson). He kept in frequent contact with his mother – until 1941, when he suddenly lost contact with her.
“I wasn't the only one – many of the other pupils from Germany lost contact with their families around that time, although a small number of the parents were able to get out of Europe and make it to Israel,” he said. Although it was always at the back of his mind, the young Bar-Ezer – not even yet a Bar-Mitzvah – did not think of his mother as having been murdered, at least not right away. “It took a few years for me to consider the possibility, and then later, towards the end of the war, we received confirmation of the fate of our parents,” he said grimly.
Still in his teens, in a new land with no relatives, it would have been understandable if Bar-Ezer had submitted to the forces of depression and despair. But he refused. “I had lost my family, but I found a new one, at the youth village,” he said. “The experiences we all shared, from the beginning and throughout the war years, turned us immigrants into a true family, with the other students our brothers and sisters, and the staff our parents.”
When asked if there was a particular figure who had a special influence on him, Bar-Ezer said that “there were so many, both students and adults. Let's just say that the whole institution, the people and the program, had a major impact on me – so much so that I am still associated with Kfar Hassidim and am a member of the youth village's board of directors.”
Bar-Ezer is a true compendium of Jewish history in Europe and in the Land of Israel. When still in his teens, he, along with fellow students – now brothers-in-arms – fought the fellahin in Gaza to set up the original Kfar Darom in 1946. Kfar Darom was one of 11 kibbutzim established by the Jewish Agency in an effort to ensure that the Negev remained a part of the Jewish state, after a United Nations report recommended that the Negev be included in the Arab part of the brewing partition plan.
Known as the “Eleven Point Plan,” the kibbutzim are all still around today – except for Kfar Darom, in the Gaza Strip, which was abandoned during the War of Liberation when overrun by Arabs.
“Some of my classmates settled in the kibbutzim of the Eleven Point Plan, working in agriculture, and some are in other places like Bnei Darom (where many of those who left Kfar Darom resettled), and some are in other kibbuzim and moshavim,” says Bar-Ezer, emphasizing that most of his friends are still working in agriculture and contributing to the state.
Interestingly, some of them even participated in the reestablishment of Kfar Darom after the Six Day War – only to see this second iteration of the kibbutz dismantled not by Arab terrorists, but by the government of Ariel Sharon, determined to banish Jews from the Gaza Strip in the name of his disastrous disengagement plan.
Bar-Ezer's adventures could fill a book – actually, three books and counting, as Bar-Ezer has already written a book dedicated to his late wife and two volumes of memoirs. He often speaks to the students in the youth village today, telling them of his experiences way back when. “They are fascinated to hear history coming alive,” he says. “The young generation is a good one. With kids like these, I'm not worried about the future.”
Kfar Hanoar Hadati will be having an alumni reunion on Lag B'Omer this year. If you are an alumnus, or know one, please turn to the villages' website http://www.kfarhanoarhadati.co.il, , write miriam@kfarhassidim.org or call (972-0)50-907669916 with how to reach you.